Chapter 2
It was winter—cold and uninviting—and Yokoyama hugged herself, protecting herself from the cold. They were still there on the streets of Tokyo with the words fresh in their minds. Yokoyama looked at Haruka curiously—her words cryptic and confusing—and got closer to her. She passed by Mayu—who wondered what their relationship was—and stood face to face with an old friend.
"You look similar.",Yokoyama said— closely studying the face of Haruka, or who she thought was Haruka.
Haruka smirked—confirming Yokoyama's beliefs, "So you've noticed? We've spent the night together. I at least hoped you looked at my face.", she said mockingly.
"Don't make it something it's not. Who are you?",Yokoyama interrogated—her voice filled with malice.
"What do you mean? I'm your old friend! Haruka!",she said happily as she kept mocking Yokoyama.
"Don't screw with me!",Yokoyama angrily screamed—her voice full of pain—and pointed a finger accusingly at Haruka,"Don't act like her in that body. You imposter."
Haruka's once cheerful face turned serious—eyes filled with an indiscernible emotion,"You don't know anything.",she retorted,"You don't know who I am or what I've been through.",she paused for a moment,"And it's all because of you.",she ended—her voice breaking at the end.
Yokoyama took a step back, feeling the presence of Mayu who watched them with inquisitive eyes, and spoke definitively,"Whoever you are. Don't show your face to me again." She turned around and left with decisive steps.
"Remember Yokoyama Yui. You left her to die!",Haruka called out at the retreating figure—who flinched at the words.
Mayu broke from her trance—still confused of what unfolded—and followed Yokoyama, mouthing an "I'll talk to you later" at Haruka before she left. She was riddled with questions—wondering what the answers were—but her only goal, at the current moment,was to chase after her classmate before she lost her. Two years ago, her life changed when she got back together with Yuki, and truthfully—she couldn't be happier. But things took a turn for the worse this morning, and she knew that it was going to be a difficult road ahead.
Mayu was still following her—not too close and not too far—and watched her closely from behind. But before she knew it, Yokoyama bolted out into a full sprint, running towards the subway. Mayu immediately matched her speed—having a slight idea of what was going on in the other girl's mind.
Mayu pulled out her phone and speed-dialed the number 1 on her phone before putting it close to her ear. She was still running when the phone clicked—signaling a connection to the other line—and came a tired voice,"Hmmm Mayu? What do you need? It's 6 in the morning you know?"
"Yuki get dressed. I think Yokoyama's going to do something stupid. Go to Shimbashi station now!",she said urgently.
"What are you talking about?! Do you know what tim—"
"Now!", she said before closing her phone—running with it in her hand as they got closer to the station.
It was a good thing it was early in the morning. There were barely any people, making it easy to spot the wallflower that was running. But Mayu still struggled to keep up with the pace—realizing that Yokoyama is more than just a bookworm. And before she knew it, she lost her in a small crowd of early-bird tourists. Mayu searched around for a while, took out her train pass, and scanned it. She guessed what train line she'd probably be in and saw Yokoyama dangerously close to the tracks—waiting for the first train to come. She was about to go up to her and stop her until she heard a voice from the other side of the train tracks—where the other train arrives.
"Yokoyama!",Mayu heard. She looked over and smiled; it was Kashiwagi.
The sudden break of silence startled Yokoyama—causing her to back away from the tracks. She looked around for the source of the voice and locked eyes with Mayu. Mayu pointed at Kashiwagi—gesturing it's not her—and Yokoyama looked at the figure across the tracks; Yuki was waving around like a dork. Mayu smiled. Her girlfriend was such a dork.
Mayu went up to Yokoyama, slung an arm across her shoulder, and invited her to her apartment—technically it was Yuki's apartment but she didn't dare say it was. Some time passed as they talked until they heard steps behind them; Kashiwagi joined them, putting her arm around Yokoyama also.
"Ms. Kashiwagi.",Mayu started,"We're going to MY apartment. Want to come to MY apartment?"
"Yeah I'll come.",Yuki said nonchalantly but Mayu gave it a few seconds.
"Wait YOUR apartment?!", Yuki exclaimed. Mayu gave a death stare which caused Yuki to give a nervous laugh.
"Yeah ok. I'll go.",Yuki said meekly. But then Mayu smiled apologetically when it was Yuki's turn to give her a death stare.
____
They arrived at "Mayu's" apartment at night—although they left in the morning (I'll tell why in a side story.) Yokoyama looked around and saw in a frame—a picture of Mayu and Yuki together. She raised an eyebrow—believing the rumor more and more—but as she was looking at it, Mayu's hand pushed down the frame, blocking the picture to be seen. She awkwardly smiled at Yokoyama and led her to the couch to talk. And in the back, much to Yokoyama's ignorance, Yuki was hiding all the frames in the kitchen pantry frantically.
"Sooooo Yokoyama.",Mayu said—trying to distract Yokoyama as Yuki tried to hide all traces of their relationship. "Are you doing well in school?" Mayu knew it was a stupid question—asking the smartest person in her whole class if she was doing well. But it somehow worked! Yokoyama kept talking about assignments, quizzes, and tests. Well it worked until...
BOOM
Yokoyama heard a ruckus behind her—wondering what it was—and saw Yuki running to and from the kitchen, collecting picture frames. She noticed a bruise on Yuki's elbow—she probably fell. So clumsy. But as soon as Yokoyama stood up to treat it, Mayu pushed her down on the couch and started another conversation.
"B-But I-I saw Kashiwagi-san—"
"Hey did you know that Sayanee's getting a solo album? Because I aaaaabbbbbssss...",she glanced at Yuki who was about to be done with hiding things,"...olutey adore her!",she quickly finished since Yuki was done.
"I'm sorry Mayu but Ms.Kashiwagi is hurt right now!",Yokoyama said as she pried herself from Mayu's grasp and went urgently to Yuki—who sat on the dining table next to the kitchen nonchalantly drinking some tea.
"Hey Yui! Want some tea?",Yuki said as she pushed tea towards Yokoyama—confused on why Yuki used her first name. But she took the cup and sat down across Yuki, followed by Mayu who came a few moments later. They sat in silence drinking tea while Yuki stole glances at the pantry overflowing with evidence. Mayu couldn't take the silence and broke it.
"Yui we need answers. What happened this morning?",Mayu said much to Yuki's confusion. Mayu then realized that Yuki had no idea of what occurred earlier that day. She mouthed an "I'll tell you later" as she egged Yui on for details. Yokoyama fell silent from the question—collecting her thoughts to somehow give an answer. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it a few moments later—much to the disappointment of Mayu who was waiting with bated breath.
"Yokoyama say it calmly and clearly.",Yuki advised.
Yokoyama gulped and took a deep breath. She then told them about it all. She told them her relationship with Haruka and how they were best friends. She told them how each morning; she would be walking towards the hospital and visiting her. She told them about how Haruka just couldn't wait to see her each morning and sneak out sometimes—despite Yokoyama's concern and worry. She told them about it all, down to the last bone. She let out her heart and soul into her words and by the end of it, she was crying the arms of Mayu—who also let out tears along with Yuki.
____
"In Kyoto where you first met, by the sakura tree, is it still there?",Mayu said—breaking the ice from the silence after the story was told.
"I don't know. I don't want to see it. I want my last memory of that tree to be beautiful.",Yokoyama answered with a quiet voice.
"You know Yuko lives in Kyoto. I could as—"
"No."
And she knew the conversation was over.
____
Yokoyama was back in her class alongside Mayu as they learned together. Apparently, the topic today was diseases. Yokoyama knew all about diseases—she'd study them every night without fail. They took notes and compared them—seeing if they missed something or not. They also gave each other pencil lead and erasers. In truth, they were the greatest study combo in that class.
But as they were learning and taking notes in the lecture hall, the seat beside Yokoyama was pulled back and sat a figure also learning and taking notes. Yokoyama glanced over at the person's notes. They were beautiful. Organized and clean compared to Yokoyama's scribbles and haphazard notes. Yokoyama looked up.
It was Haruka.
And she was smiling.
TBC
Topic: Welcome to 48 Bar! P.I Blues (SayaMilky) — Only A Small Lead (Read 39150 times)